That is why he never ventured into the hinterlands of Bengal. And that decision perhaps saved the great conqueror from an ignoble inevitability. However, historians remain divided on the issue of whether Alexander at all said anything about Bengal. Well, let them remain engaged in hot debate and discourse on the subject, but we know for sure what we are, what we are up to, and why we are up to whatever we are up to.

First of all, we foam at the mouth proclaiming ourselves progressive and democratic but underneath the heavy face make-up we are authoritarian to the core. This authoritarian character is reflected in our day-to-day interaction with our family members, domestic help, office subordinates, party followers, and people who earn their living by doing menial work.

We are the "little sahibs" left behind by the colonial British. We never say: "Do not call me sahib," to a rickshawpuller or a vegetable vendor. We expect them to call us so. To us they are the lesser mortals. Socially and economically they are inferior to us. They must keep their heads bowed before us. They must not sit before us. And all the while we are the ones who will go on talking about justice, equality, human dignity, and human rights. We shall bring out processions and rallies on behalf of the downtrodden but we would not like to walk shoulder to shoulder with them. That's us, the members of the civil society.

Then we have this special breed of people who go about doing the "business" of politics, as they are not good at anything else. Strangely enough, these self-proclaimed people's leaders, or "netas" in Bengali, are always asking for people's blood! They goad others to lay down their lives so that they may go to power and buy brand new duty-free jeeps!

So, are they any different? No. Most of these people are also endowed with this classic attribute of authoritarianism even though they may be peddling everything packed as "democracy." These highly "progressive" and "democratic" people simply love to treat the country as their estate and the people their tenants. They still have that streak of "Your Lordship" stuck somewhere in their mind and they meet the commoners only before the elections when they go begging door to door for their votes.

Then there is this unique nexus of politicians and bureaucrats. Though these politicians and bureaucrats talk all the time of accountability and transparency, yet they like to operate from behind the veil of deceit and deception. And when such politicians and bureaucrats join hands to form a nexus, it's "Twelve O' Clock" for the nation (meaning total disaster).

The Election Commission of the country at the moment has become a role model of non-transparency and authoritarianism. People feel that a marriage of bureaucracy and politics is working just fine there and no amount of public pressure can do any damage to this matrimony. It has been flowing against the tide since the famous trio took hold of the helm there. They prefer to live inside a cocoon and do their work.

As a result, the more people write about their "karmakando" (work) the more reclusive they become. Presently the EC resembles the isolated monasteries on top of the Greek mountains. Only difference is the dwellers of the EC are not anywhere near the ascetics of those monasteries.

But a much greater miasma of confusion has pervaded society in recent times. Very unfortunately, it concerns the president of the country. Cynics are of the opinion that there is politics involved here. We are not good at politics and we had this notion that the president of the country was to be kept above politics. We the people are worried and confused and we like our president very much.

There is only one president and that is good enough for us. We don't want "one and a half presidents" because then our confusion would multiply. So, we hope it would not be asking too much if we want to know about the state of our president's physical and mental health and if we also want to meet him personally; just the way he meets us personally on Eid or Puja days. If we are allowed, we want to reciprocate the courteousness of that institution.

Lastly, we want to talk about the "ghost readership" of newspapers in the country. It is because of these ethereal beings that the circulation of newspapers is going up every day. No, mortals in this country do not read newspapers, as these only write "fabricated tales." Our very own prime minister has said do.

They have rejected such "Poe-tic" tales of bizarre and stopped reading them. Therefore, it can be deduced that ghosts are behind the rise in circulation. Well, this is possibly the reason why many ruling-party supporters are also trying to bring out newspapers these days. They will also sell their papers to the innumerable "ghots," just as the current publishers do. So, good luck to the future publishers of newspapers.

Shahnoor Wahid is Senior Assistant Editor of The Daily Star.